2015 Final Four: 4 Winners, 4 Losers

Heading into Saturday night, I thought there were two immutable truths about this year's Final Four in Indianapolis, and they were as follows:

1. This is the most decorated foursome of coaches I can ever remember at one Final Four. Izzo, Coach K, Calipari, Bo Ryan. Even the four that made it in the year of all one seeds in 2008 (Roy Williams, Memphis Calipari, Self with no titles, Howland) hadn't come close collectively to achieving what this group had going into Saturday night.

2. The only matchup that could emerge from the four teams that would even be argued as "undesirable" would be a Big ten title game rematch between Michigan State and Wisconsin, but even that would've been a rematch of one of the more entertaining games of the last month.

As it stands, we didn't get the matchup that the TV people wanted (Kentucky and Duke might've broken records), but we got a damn good final between an experienced Wisconsin team and a bunch of precocious young bucks from Duke. As always, the weekend had winners and losers. Let's examine....

4. Tilman Fertitta Well, I guess teams are listed at 50/1 for a reason. More importantly, I guess Tilman Fertitta is willing to take action on teams that are 50/1 for a reason. As we outlined in last Friday's Best Bets post, Derek Stevens (owner of his own casino and several hotels in Las Vegas) fired $20,000 on Michigan State back in December to win the whole thing. At the time they were a 50/1 shot and were a week or two away from losing at home to TSU. Fast forward to Saturday and they were 80 minutes away from adding another million dollars to Stevens bank account. Thankfully, for all involved, it was obvious early on that Stevens bet was going to be one of those "Oh well, made it further than I thought I ever would..." kind of tickets, in part because of....

3. Justise Winslow Jahlil Okafor may get picked higher in June's NBA Draft, but make no mistake -- the best player on the floor throughout Duke's run to the title game has been Houston's own Justise Winslow. His athleticism at both ends of the floor have been an impossible matchup for every team Duke has faced, and his penchant for making the big play at just the right time is the stuff that makes legends this time of year. Again, Okafor will get picked higher in June because you always take a seven footer with his kind of ceiling, but it wouldn't surprise me if Winslow became the best player in this year's draft class (assuming he comes out, which isn't a given, I suppose).

2. Frank Kaminsky Speaking of elevating draft stock, it's hard to believe that just a couple years ago, Frank Kaminsky was a gangly scrub who couldn't get off the bench for Bo Ryan's squad. Now, he's like a poor man's Christian Laettner, showing an array of inside moves to go along with range on his jump shot. He's gone from bench riding afterthought to lottery pick in two years. And honestly, who cares if his mom looks like Carrot Top? I certainly don't...

1. The internet Yeah, the potential "greatest team in the history of college basketball" lost on Saturday. Not just that, they happen to be the team that is followed by the most maniacal fan base in all of college hoops, the "Alabama football" of buckets, the Big Blue Nation. So when Kentucky finally went down on Saturday, and Wisconsin became "the one in 38-1," the internet (and Twitter specifically) stepped up its game....

In fact, for the first time ever, I think we need to dedicate the entire "Losers" section to the "sad fan cam" fallout from one side of one game, because Kentucky fans damn near broke the internet on Saturday night....

Sean is a contributing freelance writer who covers Houston area sports daily in the News section, with periodic columns and features, as well. He also hosts afternoon drive on SportsRadio 610, as well as the post game show for the Houston Texans.